Food Wastage is third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after the United States and China

[Ghost Dog]

... Food that is produced but then thrown away before being eaten causes not only economic losses of nearly £500 billion every year, but also affects the climate, water, land and biodiversity... "Without accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from land use change, the carbon footprint of food produced and not eaten is estimated at 3.3 Gigatonnes (billion tonnes) of CO2 equivalent: as such, food wastage ranks as the third top emitter after the USA and China."

The report also reveals that uneaten food occupies 1.4 billion hectares of land - about 30 percent of the world's agricultural land area, and that rotting food is a large producer of the power greenhouse gas methane...

... Alongside the study, the FAO has also published recommendations on how to reduce food waste all along the food chain, and has provided case studies of projects around the world aiming to address the problem.

/... http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-09/15/food-waste

11 September 2013, Rome - The waste of a staggering 1.3 billion tonnes of food per year is not only causing major economic losses but also wreaking significant harm on the natural resources that humanity relies upon to feed itself, says a new FAO report.

Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources is the first study to analyze the impacts of global food wastage from an environmental perspective, looking specifically at its consequences for the climate, water and land use, and biodiversity.

Among its key findings: Each year, food that is produced but not eaten guzzles up a volume of water equivalent to the annual flow of Russia's Volga River and is responsible for adding 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases to the planet's atmosphere.

And beyond its environmental impacts, the direct economic consequences to producers of food wastage (excluding fish and seafood) run to the tune of $750 billion annually, FAO's report estimates.

"All of us - farmers and fishers; food processors and supermarkets; local and national governments; individual consumers -- must make changes at every link of the human food chain to prevent food wastage from happening in the first place, and re-use or recycle it when we can't," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva...

/... http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/196220/icode/

[alfie]

1. Does anyone know if composting creates methane?

I compost all of our food waste, which is mainly coffee grinds, used tea bags, veggie and fruit cores, peels, etc. We rarely have meat waste, but what little we do have is buried deep in the compost, not sent to the landfill.

[Ghost Dog]

2. If not done properly, yes:

... Poorly managed compost piles may still create unnecessary amounts of methane. There’s more to composting than just tossing grass clippings, dead leaves and food scraps onto a heap and walking away. The proper balance of air, moisture and organic debris called feedstock ensures thorough decomposition without production of methane gas...

/... http://thegreenenergyblog.com/uncategorized/preventing-methane-gas-composting

Composting is preferable to dumping in landfills, from where methane, if not harvested, will reach the atmosphere.

[alfie]

7. Thanks for that link.

I have composted for several years, recycle just about anything that will decompose, including junk mail, cereal/cracker boxes, etc. I think my pile gets aerated adequately now that I have changed to an open pile that gets turned and fluffed.

[NickB79]

6. I find trench composting very effective

Dig a trench between a row of vegetables, add compostable materials, and bury.

Within a week or two, the earthworms have eaten every scrap and peel that was there, leaving behind their rich castings and aerating the soil in the process.

Now that I've begun feeding scraps to my flock of chickens, though, I have much less material to bury.

[mopinko]

3. chickens. the answer is backyard chickens.

seriously, my compost pile is dying of neglect.
chicken poop does give off some fumes, tho, i cannot lie.

[CRH]

4. An ideal solution to controlling the composting process, ...

is pre composting food scraps, plants, and manures then allowing eisenia foetida (red worms) to convert the feedstock into natures best organic fertilizer. Done correctly, the methane problem is greatly reduced and the need for carbon generating production of fertilizers, both organic and oil based, is greatly reduced. As well the carbon produced by transportation is reduced.

It does take space, and attention to detail, as well as a small amount of time.

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. Fast Food is one of the worst offenders.

.
.

When I worked at McDonalds back in the 80's, they were discarding 50 pounds of french fries alone in a 12 hour shift.

Burgers, fish meals, salads, etc., once over the time limit for freshness, - into the garbage.

100's of pounds of food thrown away from one store, EACH DAY!

McD's had 1250 stores then. Many more than that now.

Add in all the other fast food places in North America,

WE ARE THROWING TONS OF FOOD AWAY EVERY DAY!

While others starve across the Globe.

Something is wrong with us;

ya think??

CC

[stuntcat]

8. all restaurants yes

totally! It's just a shame, all the food I saw trashed when I worked in restaurants. This is one of my reasons for rarely going to them now. I've gotten to where I have a little phobia about wasting any food.
I wish everyone would remember each morning that 40,000 people will die of starvation in the next 24 hours.